Raber
A surname found in German-speaking areas, likely built from a personal name or from a local/dialect word rather than from an English occupation.
The #4,854 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 42,521 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Raber is best treated as German in origin, though the exact source is not certain. It may come from a shortened form of an old personal name, or from a regional word that later became a family name. Because the available historical excerpt only shows the name in a surname list and not an explanation of its meaning, the literal sense cannot be fixed confidently.
History
Raber appears in German-language surname lists and is consistent with a family name that developed in the German-speaking world before spreading to North America. In the United States it is uncommon, but present enough to suggest immigration and later anglicized retention of the original spelling. The name may also have multiple unrelated origins in different localities, which is common with short surnames of this type.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Short surnames like Raber are often hard to pin down because the same spelling can arise from different local dialect forms in different places.
From the historical record
“Rubel, Rfib, Rubel 57. Raber 96. Rübig 68. Räch, Ruck 57.”
— Die oberdeutschen Familiennamen